Pakistan tells US to end terror drone strikes

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari (center) met with US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman (to his right) in Islamabad on Saturday.

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Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has said that US assassination drone strikes are “counter-productive” and has asked Washington to end the strikes on Pakistan’s tribal areas.
Zardari made the remarks after a meeting with US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman in Islamabad on Saturday, AFP reported.
Grossman arrived in the Pakistani capital on Friday for meetings with the country’s high-ranking officials.
"They discussed bilateral relations, the fight against militancy, the regional situation, drug trafficking and drone attacks," President Zardari’s spokesman, Farhatullah Babar, told reporters.
The Pakistani president "reiterated his call for an end to the drone attacks, terming them counterproductive in the fight against militancy and in the battle of winning hearts," Babar added.
Grossman also met with Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, Army Chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani, and some parliamentarians.
Washington claims that its airstrikes target militants crossing the Afghanistan border, but local sources say civilians have been the main victims of the attacks.
Pakistanis have held many demonstrations to condemn the United States’ violations of their national sovereignty.
On January 31, 2012, President Barack Obama confirmed that the United States uses the drones in Pakistan and other countries.
In reply to questions about the use of the assassination drones by his administration in a chat with web users on Google+ and YouTube, the US president said, “a lot of these strikes have been in the FATA” -- Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
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